QuadCopter News

I haven’t posted in quite awhile and I’ve never posted a product for the sake of posting a product until now. I’d like to state that I am not being compensated in any way by Ecks Multirotor and that this is NOT a paid advertisement. I’m posting this because the new EXO 440 Recon frame caught my attention and I think it’s definitely worth a look. Cameron from Ecks is a great guy and he does some interesting and original work in the area of frame design so I always check out his Facebook Page to see what it is he’s up to at the moment.

In the past Cameron was kind enough to sell me a prototype 2-axis gimbal for my Sony NEX5R. I bothered him about it because he was the only one on the market making a gimbal out of 2 solid pieces of billet aluminum. It is a piece of artwork. That said, his work is top notch and I urge you to check out his website and vimeo page when you get a chance and contact Cameron if you have any questions about this extremely well designed frame.

Today as I was browsing my Facebook account aimlessly my eyeballs came across a little post from DJI. It read “We’re happy to announce a change to the price of the Phantom!” My first thought was “Oh no, please no — now we’re going to have even more irresponsible people buying these ready to fly (RTF) QuadCopters and operating them without regard for persons or property on the ground.” Then I thought about a little similar looking copter recently released by Walkera in the beginning of August. I tried to remember the price for that little beast. The copter is the Walkera QR X350 and it is priced at $449 in a RTF configuration similar to that of the DJI Phantom. It is one of three potential competitors out there at the moment for DJI’s Phantom. The other two are the Blade 350 QX priced at $469, and the IdeaFly Apollo, priced at $569. Up until today, all were priced below the DJI Phantom’s going rate of $679.Read more →

Today 3D Robotics (3DR) announced Iris — an advanced quadcopter with full GPS-guided autonomous capabilities. Iris is designed to provide an “out-of-the-box” flying experience that brings the power of professional grade aerial robotics to the mass market.

Well it’s not quite out of the box ready yet though – thus my skeptical title. Reading a little further than the first paragraph of their press release and making it to their purchase page, I quickly learned from the big red text that the initial release of this platform is meant for developers and experienced operators who want to help in the overall development process. I guess it’s acceptable nowadays to pay $700+ to be part of the testing and development crew. To each his own, and good luck folks!Read more →